American Academy in Rome Affiliated Fellowship

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CCHA-AAR
Affiliated Fellowship

Front facade of the American Academy in Rome

AAR-CCHA Affiliated Fellowship Info

Established by The American Academy in Rome (AAR) in 2013, the AAR-CCHA Affiliated Fellowship is awarded annually to one faculty member at an  American community college. The award includes a four-week residency in June (exact dates TBD) at the Academy and a modest travel stipend. The call for applicants is generally released in mid-to-late November, with selection being finalized in January.

The AAR also invites CCHA members to apply for the Rome Prize, which is a separate AAR Fellowship opportunity. More information about this can be found HERE.

Past AAR-CCHA Fellows

2017: LAURA MIGLIORINO, an art instructor at Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids, Minnesota

She came to Rome to continue her work on “The Book as the Foundation of Humanities Education,” by studying relevant books from the Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Collection at the academy. She will then integrate critical texts from the collection into her curriculum.

“The updating of curriculum is the focus of my upcoming sabbatical and will allow me to formalize something I already do informally. I use books as anchors in all of my classes, they are markers or points on a timeline that deepen and enhance the material in both Art History and studio courses . . . The access to the Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Collection from a scholarly perspective will impact my teaching and what I learn will be shared with students, and fellow faculty.”

2016: MERYL SHRIVER-RICE, an archaeologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Arts and Philosophy at Miami Dade College

Her work on the “Etruscan Table” project examined the “material culture associated with Etruscan food.”  This included an investigation into the “botanical, entomological, and zooarchaeological evidence for food, feasting, and trade in exotic consumables in ancient Etruria amongst the Etruscan city-states, their hinterlands, and foreign trade relations.” Dr. Shriver-Rice sees one of the outcomes as a way to “bring visibility” to the issues of “of the food-related predicaments we face today, such as food deserts and sustainability.”

2015: AMY CLARK KNAPP, adjunct instructor of Art History and Western Civilization at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio

Amy went to Rome to work on the Etruscans. “The bulk of my post-graduate research has been in artistic visual communication; identifying simplistic and complex artistic symbolism, determining and interpreting comprehensive meanings and sometimes revealing subtle or clandestine messages,” said Knapp. “My objective is to identify the symbolic iconography used on Etruscan sarcophagi and its message, and validate its audience.” She explained that part of understanding the iconography is understanding its origins.

 2014: LAUREN H. BRAUN-STRUMFELS, a history instructor from Raritan Valley Community College in Somerville, New Jersey

Excerpts from the AAR magazine article on her and the CCHA Affiliated Fellowship:
“Time at the AAR enabled Braun-Strumfels to return to the archives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she has been researching Italian immigration to the American South. She says her work in Rome ‘has re-framed my view of U.S. history, erasing arbitrary boundaries because my work must be refracted through Rome’s influence.”
“In addition to her research, Braun-Strumfels contributed to the Academy’s ongoing discussion about the future of the humanities by leading a vibrant roundtable discussion on Teaching the Value of the Humanities with Literature Fellow Peter Bognanni and Early Modern Fellow Gabrielle Piedad Ponce. ‘Teaching at a Community College,’ she says, ‘puts me on the front lines of education.”

“Noting the unique diversity of a community college classroom, she points out, ‘We as humanities scholars have the opportunity to teach the humanistic lens to the nursing student, to the English major, and everyone in between… We are accessible institutions, and the more that we can support and challenge our students, in my mind, the more our students and we as faculty can influence our world to be a more democratic place.”